pyMeteo documentation

Contents:

Skew-T/Log-P plotting, meteorology and interfacing with CM1

This package provides routines for plotting Skew-T/Log-P diagrams and working with CM1 output. For contributions, please submit pull requests to https://github.com/cwebster2/pymeteo. Please report bugs using the github issue tracker at https://github.com/cwebster2/pymeteo/issues.

Skew-t/Log-p Plotting

This module allows plotting Skew-T/Log-P diagrams and hodographs from arrays of data with helper functions to plot directly from CM1 output files in either Grads or HDF5 format and also from sounding data text files in the format used for WRF and CM1 initialization.

This module also has code to produce rudimentary analysis of the soundings data. Currently this is limited to CAPE (surface and most unstable), CIN, wind shear, storm relative helicity, lifted index and a rough estimate of storm motion based on the Bunkers (2000) method.

_images/skewt.png

Example Skew-T/Log-P with hodograph

Plotting

High level plotting functions

These functions are called by command line scripts provided to make plotting from data files easy. You can invoke these through command line scripts as:

# From tabular sounding data (e.g. WRF or CM1 intial sounding data)
$ skewt tabular -f sounding.dat skewt.pdf

# From GrADS stlye CM1 output
$ skewt cm1 -p . -d cm1out -x 0 -y 0 skewt-cm1.pdf

# From HDF5 CM1 output
$ skewt cm1hdf -f model-data.h5 -x 0 -y 0 skewt.pdf

# From WRF output 
$ skewt wrf -f wrfout.nc --lat 30 --lon -80 -t 0 skewt.pdf

# From University of Wyoming data file
$ skewt uwyo -f uwyo-data.dat skewt.pdf

# From University of Wyming website data (live)
$ skewt uwyoweb --station 72251 skewt.pdf

  • plot() – generic high level plot function

import numpy as np
import pymeteo.skewt as skewt

# prepare 1D arrays height (z), pressure (p), potential temperature (th), 
# water vapor mixing ratio (qv), winds (u and v) all of the same length.

skewt.plot(None, z, th, p, qv, u, v, 'skewt.pdf')

Variables affecting the plot output

These variables affect the skewness of the plot and the bounds of the plot

These variables affect the lines plotted on the skew-t

These variables affect the plotting of the lines above

These variables affect the plotting style of skewt data

Functions to draw isolines

If you are manually plotting skew-t data, these functions can be used to draw various lines on your plot. These are used by the high level plotting functions.

Module reference

pymeteo.skewt.Tmax = 40.0

Sets the right boundary of the plot. Temperature at 1000 mb (C)

pymeteo.skewt.Tmin = -40.0

Sets the left boundary of the plot. Temperature at 1000 mb (C)

pymeteo.skewt.dp = 5000.0

The delta pressure used in calculating adiabats

pymeteo.skewt.draw_dry_adiabat(axes)

Plot dry adiabats on axes

Parameters:

axes (matplotlib.axes) – The axes to draw on

This function calculates dry adiabats and plots these lines. Adiabats are calculated every 10 K

pymeteo.skewt.draw_isobars(axes)

Plot isobars on axes

Parameters:

axes (matplotlib.axes) – The axes to draw on

This function draws isobars at intervals of 2*dp.

pymeteo.skewt.draw_isotherms(axes)

Plot isotherms on axes

Parameters:

axes (matplotlib.axes) – The axes to draw on

This function draws isotherms every 10 C.

pymeteo.skewt.draw_moist_adiabat(axes)

Plot moist adiabats on axes

Parameters:

axes (matplotlib.axes) – The axes to draw on

This function calculates moist adiabats and plots these lines. Adiabats are calculated for values of T at 1000mb from -15 to 45 C every 5 C between -15 and 10 C and every 2.5 C between 12.5 and 45 C.

pymeteo.skewt.draw_water_mix_ratio(axes)

Plot lines of constant water vapor mixing ratio on axes

Parameters:

axes (matplotlib.axes) – The axes to draw on

This function calculates isolines of constant water vapor mixing ratio and plots these lines. Values of w calculated are given by the list variable w.

pymeteo.skewt.dry_adiabats = array([-40, -30, -20, -10,   0,  10,  20,  30,  40,  50,  60,  70,  80,         90, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190, 200])

List of dry adiabats to plot on the skew-t. In degrees C

pymeteo.skewt.isobars = array([100000.,  95000.,  90000.,  85000.,  80000.,  75000.,  70000.,         65000.,  60000.,  55000.,  50000.,  45000.,  40000.,  35000.,         30000.,  25000.,  20000.,  15000.,  10000.])

List of isobars to plot on the skew-t. In Pascals

pymeteo.skewt.isotherms = array([-150, -140, -130, -120, -110, -100,  -90,  -80,  -70,  -60,  -50,         -40,  -30,  -20,  -10,    0,   10,   20,   30,   40,   50])

List of isotherms to plot on the skew-t. In degrees C

pymeteo.skewt.label_std_heights(axes)

Plot heights of standard pressure levels

Paramter axes:

The axes to draw on

pymeteo.skewt.lc_major = 'grey'

Line color of ‘major’ lines. E.g. Lines plotted at 10 C intervals or 50 mb intervals

pymeteo.skewt.lc_minor = 'lightgrey'

Line color of ‘minor’ lines. E.g. Lines not plotted at the major intervals

pymeteo.skewt.linecolor_Parcel_T = 'red'

Line color of lifted surface parcel temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linecolor_T = 'black'

Line color of environmental temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linecolor_Td = 'green'

Line color of environmental dew-point temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linecolor_Tve = 'black'

Line color of environmental virtual temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linecolor_Tvp = 'red'

Line color of lifted surface parcel virtual temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linecolor_Twb = 'blue'

Line color of environmental wet-bulb temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linestyle_Tve = '--'

Line style of environmental virtual temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linestyle_Tvp = '--'

Line style of lifted surface parcel virtual temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linewidth_Parcel_T = 1.0

Line width of lifted surface parcel temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linewidth_T = 1.5

Line width of environmental temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linewidth_Td = 1.5

Line width of environmental dew-point temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linewidth_Tve = 0.7

Line width of environmental virtual temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linewidth_Tvp = 0.7

Line width of lifted surface parcel virtual temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.linewidth_Twb = 0.5

Line width of environmental wet-bulb temperature profile

pymeteo.skewt.lw_major = 0.6

Line width of ‘major’ lines. E.g. Lines plotted at 10 C intervals or 50 mb intervals

pymeteo.skewt.lw_minor = 0.25

Line width of ‘minor’ lines. E.g. Lines not plotted at the major intervals

pymeteo.skewt.mixing_ratios = [0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 18, 24, 32, 40]

List of water vapor mixing ratio lines to plot. In g/kg

pymeteo.skewt.moist_adiabats = array([-15., -10.,  -5.,   0.,   5.,  10.,  12.,  14.,  16.,  18.,  20.,         22.,  24.,  26.,  28.,  30.,  32.,  34.,  36.,  38.,  40.,  42.,         44.])

List of moist adiabats to plot on the skew-t. In degrees C

pymeteo.skewt.pbot = 105000.0

Sets the bottom boundary of the plot. Pressure (Pa)

pymeteo.skewt.plevs = array([105000., 100000.,  95000.,  90000.,  85000.,  80000.,  75000.,         70000.,  65000.,  60000.,  55000.,  50000.,  45000.,  40000.,         35000.,  30000.,  25000.,  20000.,  15000.,  10000.])

List of pressure levels to do calculations on

pymeteo.skewt.plot(loc, z, th, p, qv, u, v, output, time=None, title=None)

Plots Skew-T/Log-P diagrapms with hodograph

The helper functions above facilitate loading data from various formats and then call this function. If you have data in another format or arrays of data in python already, then this is the function you want to use.

Parameters:

  • loc – Location string

  • z – z grid mesh (1D)

  • time – Time string

  • th – Potential temperature at z points

  • p – Pressure at z points

  • qv – Water vapor mixing ratio at z points

  • u – u winds at z points

  • v – v winds at z points

  • title – Title for plot

  • output – Filename to save plot to

pymeteo.skewt.plot_cm1(path, filename, xi, yi, output)

Plot skewt from a Grads format CM1 output file

Parameters:

  • _path – Path to CM1 dataset

  • _filename – Filename of dataset

  • x1 – X gridpoint to plot SkewT

  • y1 – Y gridpoint to plot SkewT

  • output – Filename to save skewt plot

This function plots a skewt from a CM1 output file. This routine uses winds interpolated to the scalar gridpoints.

pymeteo.skewt.plot_cm1h5(filename, xi, yi, output)

Plots a skewt from an HDF5 file.

Parameters:

  • filename (str) – The name of the HDF5 file to open.

  • xi (int) – The X gridpoint of the skewt plot.

  • yi (int) – The Y gridpoint of the skewt plot.

  • output (str) – Output filename to save plot

To use this function the HDF5 file must have the following variables:

  • xh – x scalar grid locations

  • yh – y scalar grid locations

  • z – z grid locations

  • time – timestep of file data (scalar)

  • th – potential temperature (K)

  • thpert – potential temperature perturbation (K)

  • prs – pressure (Pa)

  • u – u wind speed (m/s)

  • v – v wind speed (m/s)

  • qv – water vapor mixing ratio (kg/kg)

The names of these variables correspond to default naming by CM1 using HDF5 output.

pymeteo.skewt.plot_hodo_axes(axes)

Plot hodograph axes

This will plot range arcs and labels for a hodograph plot

pymeteo.skewt.plot_hodograph(axes, z, u, v)

Plot Hodograph data

This plots u and v winds vs height on a hodograph.

Parameters:

  • z – height values (1D array)

  • u – U component of wind at z heights (1D array)

  • v – V component of wind at z heights (1D array)

Paramter axes:

The axes instance to draw on

pymeteo.skewt.plot_legend(axes)

Plot skew-t legend

pymeteo.skewt.plot_sounding(axes, z, th, p, qv, u=None, v=None)

Plot sounding data

This plots temperature, dewpoint and wind data on a Skew-T/Log-P plot. This will also plot derived values such as wetbulb temperature and label the surface based LCL, LFC and EL.

Parameters:

  • z – height values (1D array)

  • th – potential temperature at z heights (1D array)

  • p – pressure at z heights (1D array)

  • qv – water vapor mixing ratio at z heights (1D array)

  • u – U component of wind at z heights (1D array)

  • v – V component of wind at z heights (1D array)

Paramter axes:

The axes instance to draw on

pymeteo.skewt.plot_sounding_axes(axes)

Plots Skew-T/Log-P axes

This will plot isotherms, isobars, dry and moist adiabats, lines of constant water vapor mixing ratio, labels and setup the y axes to be reversed.

Paramter axes:

The axes to draw on

pymeteo.skewt.plot_sounding_data(filename, output)

Plot SkewT from a WRF / CM1 compatible sounding data file

Parameters:

  • filename (str) – The name of the file to open.

  • output (str) – The name of the file to output plot

The datafile is the same format as used in sounding initalization files for WRF and CM1.

The format is: 1 line header with surface pressure (mb), theta (K) and qv (g/kg) n number of lines with z (m), theta (K), qv (g/kg), u (m/s), v(m/s)

pymeteo.skewt.plot_sounding_data_csv(filename, output)

Plot SkewT from a CSV sounding data file

Parameters:

  • filename (str) – The name of the file to open.

  • output (str) – The name of the file to output plot

The datafile format is CSV with the following columns:

  • pressure (mb)

  • height (m)

  • temperature (C)

  • dew point (C)

  • wind direction (degrees)

  • wind speed (m/s)

Missing values should be filled with the value -9999.00

pymeteo.skewt.plot_sounding_data_uwyo(filename, output, stationID=0, date=None)

Plot SkewT from University of Wyoming sounding data

Parameters:

  • filename – The name of the file containing sounding data

  • output (str) – The name of the file to output plot

  • stationID (int) – The station ID of a sounding station

  • date (datetime) – Date and time of a sounding to request

If filename is not None then this function will plot data from that file. If filename is None and stationID is non-zero, then this will request a sounding datafile from http://weather.uwyo.edu for the specified date. If date is None then the requested sounding will be the most recent sounding taken at either 12Z or 00Z.

pymeteo.skewt.plot_wrf(filename, lat, lon, time, output)

Plots a skewt from an WRF NetCDF output file.

Parameters:

  • filename (str) – The name of the NetCDF file to open.

  • lat (float) – The latitude of the location of the skewt plot.

  • lon (int) – The longitude of the location of the skewt plot.

  • output (str) – Output filename to save plot

This function assumes the NetCDF file was produce by the WRF model. If another program produces the file but names variables in the same manner as the WRF model, this function should work for that dat as well.

The variables using in the wrfout.nc data are: - Times ? - U(Time, bottom_top, south_north, west_east_stag) - V(Time, bottom_top, south_north_stag, west_east) - T(Time, bottom_top, south_north, west_east) Theta perturbation - P(Time, bottom_top, south_north, west_east) Pres perturbation - PB(Time, bottom_top, south_north, west_east) pres base state - QVAPOR(Time, bottom_top, south_north, west_east)

  • PH(Time, bottom_top_stag, south_north, west_east)

  • PHB(Time, bottom_top_stag, south_north, west_east) Z = (((PH(k)+PH(k+1)) / 2) + ((PHB(k)+(PHB(k+1)) / 2) / 9.81

  • TH2(Time, south_north, west_east) – 2m pot temp

  • PSFC(Time, south_north, west_east) – surface pres

  • U10(Time, south_north, west_east) – 10m U

  • V10(Time, south_north, west_east) – 10m V

  • XTIME(Time) – minutes since start of sim

  • XLAT, XLONG, XLAT_U/V, XLONG_U/V

  • Start_date

Need time, theta, pressure

pymeteo.skewt.ptickbot = 100000.0

Lowest elevated pressure level to be labelled in the plot (Pa)

pymeteo.skewt.pticktop = 10000.0

Highest elevated pressure level to be labelled in the plot (Pa)

pymeteo.skewt.ptop = 10000.0

Sets the top boundary of the plot. Pressure (Pa)

pymeteo.skewt.skew(p)

Puts the skew in skew-T

Parameters:

p – pressure level of the point.

This calculates the skew of the T axis for a point to plot. This assumes a logarithmic y axes and uses the variable :py:data:skew_angle to determine the skew. This is the magic that turns a cartesian plot into a Skew-T/Log-p plot.

pymeteo.skewt.skew_angle = 37.5

This defines the skewness of the T axis

pymeteo.skewt.tickdp = 10000

The spacing between pressure labels in the plot (Pa)

Interfacining with CM1

Class to read GRaDS style CM1 model output data

class pymeteo.cm1.read_grads.CM1(_CM1__path, _CM1__datasetname)

Class that implements reading CM1 model data

Parameters:

  • path – path to CM1 data files

  • datasetname – the CM1 data files basename

dimT = 0

T grid dimension (1D)

dimX = 0

X grid dimension (1D)

dimY = 0

Y grid dimension (1D)

dimZ = 0

Z grid dimension (1D)

dt = 0

timestep between time levels

nt = 0

number of time levels in the dataset

nv = 0

number of variables in the dataset

nx = 0

gridpoints in the x direction

ny = 0

gridpoints in the y direction

nz = 0

gridpoints in the z direction

read3d(time, varname)

Reads a 3D variable from the dataset

Parameters:

  • time – the timelevel to read

  • varname – the variable name to read

Reaturns:

3D array containing the variable at the time

Dynamics

This module provides routine thermodynamic functions

pymeteo.dynamics.mean_wind(_u, _v, _z, zbot, ztop)

Calculates the mean wind in the layer between zbot and ztop

Parameters:

  • _u – U winds (1D vector in z)

  • _u – V winds (1D vector in z)

  • _z – z heights (1D vector in z)

  • zbot – Bottom of the layer

  • ztop – Top of the layer

pymeteo.dynamics.shear(_u, _v, _z, zbot, ztop)

Calculates the shear in the layer between zbot and ztop

Parameters:

  • _u – U winds (1D vector in z)

  • _u – V winds (1D vector in z)

  • _z – z heights (1D vector in z)

  • zbot – Bottom of the layer

  • ztop – Top of the layer

pymeteo.dynamics.srh(_u, _v, _z, zbot, ztop, cx, cy)

Calculates the storm relative helicity in the layer between zbot and ztop

Parameters:

  • _u – U winds (1D vector in z)

  • _u – V winds (1D vector in z)

  • _z – z heights (1D vector in z)

  • zbot – Bottom of the layer

  • ztop – Top of the layer

  • cx – u component of storm motion

  • cy – v component of storm motion

pymeteo.dynamics.uv_to_deg(u, v)

transforms u, v, to direction, maginutide

Parameters:

  • u – u wind component

  • v – v wind component

Returns:

wind direction and magnitude

pymeteo.dynamics.wind_deg_to_uv(direction, speed)

Converts direction and speed into u,v wind

Parameters:

  • direction – wind direction (mathmatical angle)

  • speed – wind magnitude

Returns:

u and v wind components

Thermodynamic routines

pymeteo.thermo.T(theta, p)

Convert Potential Temperature \(\theta\) to Temperature

Parameters:

  • theta – Potential temperature (K)

  • p – Pressure (Pa)

Returns:

Temperature (K)

Meteorological constants

This module provides constants used in the rest of the package

Indices and tables